I have always found it to be somewhat of an odd occurrence, when those who proclaim themselves to be “Patriotic Americans” and conservative or “republican” get completely up in arms at every little thing that they claim shows disrespect to the American Flag, while they themselves display the “rebel flag” or alternate colorizations and depictions of Old Glory.

Many of the same people who claim to be patriots “disrespect” the flag on a daily basis.

The flag of the United States shall be thirteen horizontal stripes, alternate red and white; and the union of the flag shall be fifty stars, white in a blue field.

(d) The flag should never be used as wearing apparel, bedding, or drapery. It should never be festooned, drawn back, nor up, in folds, but always allowed to fall free.

Bunting of blue, white, and red always arranged with the blue above, the white in the middle, and the red below, should be used for covering a speaker’s desk, draping the front of the platform, and for decoration in general.

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(g) The flag should never have placed upon it, nor on any part of it, nor attached to it any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture, or drawing of any nature.

(h) The flag should never be used as a receptacle for receiving, holding, carrying, or delivering anything.

(i) The flag should never be used for advertising purposes in any manner whatsoever. It should not be embroidered on such articles as cushions or handkerchiefs and the like, printed or otherwise impressed on paper napkin or boxes or anything that is designed for temporary use and discard. Advertising signs should not be fastened to a staff or halyard from which the flag is flown.

By every measure of the United States Flag code, waiving a “thin blue line” flag, wearing a single color patch of the American flag on your leather vest or eating off of red, white & blue plates and then wiping the potato salad and drool from your mouth with a stars & stripes napkin is open disrespect for the flag.

What is even crazier, is the same person who get’s upset when a pro athlete chooses not to stand during the national anthem, is often times wearing a “rebel flag” on his tee shirt while he’s wiping the mustard off his lips with an Old Glory napkin.

The same people who say “America love it or leave it” when it comes to things they perceive as un-American, support a flag of a movement that was trying to leave it because they didn’t love it.

Hypocrisy at its finest.

This past Monday Night, my hometown Cleveland Browns took on the New York Giants in a nationally televised pre-season game. Nine days after the racially charged events of Charlottesville and a year after the Colin Kaepernick anthem controversy began, about a dozen players knelt and prayed during the playing of the national anthem, a handful of teammates stood by in support placing a hand on a teammate’s shoulder.

CLEVELAND – Angry fans took to the Cleveland Browns Facebook page overnight and into Tuesday morning to voice their frustration with the players who kneeled during the national anthem Monday night.

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The Browns Facebook page lit up after the game, with people calling the team “disgraceful.”

“Pray before or pray after. Taking a knee during the National Anthem these days screams disrespect for our Flag, Our Country and our troops. My son and the entire armed forces deserve better than that,” wrote one person.

“Cleveland Browns needed all the fans they can get!” wrote another. “They have one less now! How pathetic! You are not paid to protest! I for one am done with any professional team that act’s this way! Lost any money from me for life! For years I have protested as to why you are so bad and never win any more, now I see it’s your Teams values! Good luck but you lost this fan for life and all my spending$$. This country needs heroes and patriots not millionaire crybaby’s who disrespect this country and our flag!” Read More…

So according to the internet patriots, you can’t kneel and pray to the Lord during the National Anthem because “our soldiers fought for freedom” and “you better stand up an pledge that oath to a piece of cloth or else you ain’t free”.

My own personal view, when attending a sporting event, is that I stand for the national anthem. I too personally am personally offended and believe that it is somewhat disrespectful to refuse to stand for the national anthem. However, I don’t get all raging angry about it and want to shuffle off to my safe space, because I am a grown up who knows that the right to not get offended is not one of my god-given unalienable rights.

Furthermore, while I believe it to be disrespectful to not stand for the anthem, I believe it is infinitely more disrespectful to characterize what that flag stands for.

As I wrote last November after President Trump posted his “there must be consequences…” tweet about people who burn the flag. No man died for a piece of cloth, they died for the idea that that piece of cloth represented. Amongst those ideas, as our founding fathers so eloquently put it is that we “… are endowed by [our] Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Part of that includes the right to partake in activities that others don’t agree with, as long as in doing so you are not depriving another of their rights. Wanting to force another free person to stand up for a song is the polar opposite of the freedoms that our republic represents.

So a couple of girls who were probably not even born, or at the very most in diapers when the Browns were last in the playoffs (2003) have come up with an open “letter” to the Browns outlining whom they think the Cleveland Browns should hire as their next coach.

That’s right in honor of the insane statements made by Cleveland Browns Head Coach Romeo Crennell, I figure that I shall make one of my own.

Given a year’s time I believe that I can develop an engine that runs on absolutely nothing. Nothing would need to be consumed to power this motor, thus no by products would be emitted into the atmosphere as a result of this new motor I believe I can invent. I will solve America’s fuel problems and save the environment all at the same time.

And if anybody actually believes that, you are certifiably delusional just like Cleveland Brown’s head Coach Romeo Crennell whom Monday actually made the statement to reporters that he believes he can turn the Browns around.

“I think that if given the chance, I can turn it around,” said Crennel, 24-39 in Cleveland since 2005. “We won 10 last year, so I feel like we can win 10 again or win more. That’s not in my hands, that’s not in my control. All I can do is make a case for myself and say that, given the chance, I would be able to get it turned around.”

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As for Crennel, he’s confident that because of his relationship with Lerner that he’ll have an opportunity to outline why he should return for a fifth season. That doesn’t mean he will be back, though.

“He’s got a lot of different things he’s got to consider and look at,” Crennel said of Lerner. “He will make that determination in January after the season’s over. At that time, when I get the chance to sit down and talk with him, then I can make my case. He’s going to have to decide whether I’ve made a good enough case or whether he wants to stay with me in this job.”

Crennel has never used injuries as an excuse, and he’s not about to start. He is certain, however, that without them, the Browns would be much better.

“People don’t want to hear excuses,” he said. “They want to know why you didn’t win. If you win, sometimes you can play poorly and win and everybody is OK with it. And when you lose, they want to know why you didn’t win and that’s the nature of this business and you have to understand that coming in.”

Romeo Crennell seams like a great guy, the type of grandfatherly figure you’d love to drink a few beers with and go fishing with. That though, is part of his downfall, because his players love him — a little too much.

Looking at the lack of inspired play on everybody on the team with the exception of Joshua Cribbs, Corey Williams and the last few games Willie McGinest — it’s easy to see that while they may like Romeo they don’t respect or at least fear him.

The Cleveland Browns are playing like a team that is flat out not prepared to suit up and play 60 minutes of football each week and that comes down on the Head Coach. It is the head Coach’s job to get his players motivated and fired up and most importantly prepared to play and play hard each and every game. Now conventional wisdom and really just common sense should tell you that these guys are millionaires who are getting paid to play a game and should not need motivation from their coach — but unfortunately things don’t work that way.

Combine that with the idiotic play calling, poor clock management decisions and inefficient use of personnel that has plagues the Browns all season and you have a team that has not scored an offensive touchdown in 20 whole quarters of play.

Romeo Crennell you are a nice guy, and were a very good Coordinator and position coach, which I’m sure you will be again someday, but you are plain and simply not a very good Head Coach.

After Monday night’s loss to the Eagles, Edwards suggested that his ties to Michigan football have kept him from being embraced by the folks in Ohio.

Seriously.

“I’ve learned being here that I’m very unappreciated,” Edwards said. “Not in the organization, just in the eyes of the fans, the city. Since Day One I’ve been a marked man coming from Michigan. It’s just gone that way. Even when things are good, there’s heckles.”

Braylon, please do a little research on Thom Darden before coming to any conclusions regarding whether Browns fans hold grudges about guys who played for Michigan.

On Tuesday, Edwards continued to chirp.

“I’m not Paul Warfield, Webster Slaughter or Jim Brown,” Edwards said, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “I’ve given my all to this city for four years, and I realize it will never be enough. I went to the Pro Bowl last year and resurrected this team from the darkness, and nobody cared.”

Seriously Braylon, STFU. Browns fans are not hating on you because you went to Michigan, we are hating on you because this season you have had hands of stone and have dropped an insane amount of passes. Football is a team sport, and it is very rare that one player, especially a Wide Receiver can have so much of an impact that they single handedly cause their team to lose not just a game, but multiple games. But somehow Braylon Edwards you found a way to do it.

Yes, Braylon here in Ohio we Don’t Give a Damn About The Whole State of Michigan, but at the same time we don’t give a damn where our sports figures come from as long as they produce. Hell the majority of Browns fans are clamoring for Bill freaking Cowher who is a god in Pittsburgh to be our next head coach.

All you have to do is do your job and catch the damn ball. Last year you did that and did it great and there was no hating on you. Then this year, you let one year of fame go all to your head and now you make Clifford Franklin from the movie the Replacements look like Jerry Rice.